Texas Dance Halls: A Two-Step Circuit

by Gail Folkins

Book Overview

Texas shows its best moves in dance halls that dot its landscape. Wherever they've found fiddlers and dance floors, Texans have been tickled into motion. And for a century and a half, they've been kicking up dust in dance halls across the state. Writing about the eighteen she knows best, Gail Folkins celebrates how these halls still bring people together and foster joy. Folkins etches portraits of proprietors who give space for music and dancing,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0896726037
• ISBN13: 9780896726031
• Release Date: September 2007
• Publisher: Texas Tech University Press
• Length: 212 Pages
• Weight: 2.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 8.2" x 11.1"

Customer Reviews

Dancing across Texas...

I loved this book. It holds great sentimental value to me. My husband and I were married at the dance hall on the cover. We were told about the book on the night of our wedding. After most of the guest had left we wondered downstairs to relax, have a few drinks with close friends and family. A lady approached us that had a copy of the book and let me thumb through it. As soon as we got back from our honeymoon we bought the book. We plan to dance in every dance hall in the book. We've already hit a few but look forward to dancing our way through the rest. As we visit the dance halls we take pictures with the owners and get them to sign our book. This will become one of our prized possessions full of cherished memories and the tattered map of texas with all the dance halls marked. This is something that will be passed down and hopefully as people look through it remember us as the couple that danced their way through their lives together and Texas. We met at a dance hall and plan to keep on dancing together forever.

A wonderful addition to American culture and Texas history collections.

Texas Dance Halls: A Two Step Circuit is an amazing history and showcase of the cultural legacy of Texas dance floors. Black-and-white photography throughout illustrates the motion and life that fills these gathering places, while the text traces the history, construction, and high events of the halls, as well as what goes into making Texas music and much more. A wonderful addition to American culture and Texas history collections.

A true Texas experience

Gail Folkins has captured the essence of the Texas dance hall experience. Where you can watch an old couple who has been dancing together for fifty years, or a little girl learn to dance on the tops of her father's feet. The only thing better than this beautifully written and illustrated book is the real thing.